Endless
by detective-sweetheart
Summary: An interlude between two partners on the rooftop of the 16th precinct after a case hits close to home for one.


It was midnight when he finally decided that he'd had enough of everything. A lot of things went in and out of the Special Victims' Unit day by day...but few cases ever hit him like this. For some reason, those cases always seemed to involve children in one way or another. Having four of his own just made it that much worse. It hurt to think that a child could be so easily betrayed by someone she loved...someone who was supposed to love her unconditionally in return. He ignored his surroundings as he made his way to the rooftop of the precinct, knowing full well already that everything was silent. Going up there wasn't something he normally did...but in this particular situation, turning to a bottle didn't seem right for some reason. Thoughts ran through his mind, too fast for him to keep track of. But one of them stood out...and that was the thought of the little girl that was currently in the hospital, in a coma, with a look of hidden relief on her face.  
  
He couldn't blame her for being relieved that she was out of it, out of a world where all there was for her was heartache and betrayal. She had stayed awake long enough to tell the doctors what they had relayed to him and his partner. Both of them had been appalled by what they'd heard...who would have ever thought a parent could do such a thing? But then again, they had heard worse, and every time it had the same effect on them. No child deserved to be beaten, tortured, starved, unloved...as far as he was concerned, bringing a child into a world where those sorts of things were all she would know wasn't worth it at all. Footsteps broke into his silent reverie, and he looked up to see Olivia standing there, pulling her jacket closer around her.  
  
"It's freezing out here. Are you trying to get yourself sick?" she asked.  
  
"Maybe." he answered, more calmly than he felt. It was probably no use trying to hide how he really felt from her...she'd figure it out sooner or later, and he knew it.  
  
"This is really beginning to get to you, isn't it?" Olivia asked after a few minutes of silence. He glared at her, as if daring her to question his emotional standing, though she technically already had.  
  
"I don't really know what I'm feeling anymore." he told her. She said nothing. Cases like this were hard on both of them, but especially on him. She'd seen him under strain before...but this...this was different. He was definitely more than professionally involved in this.  
  
"When we catch whoever did this, they'll be going away for a long time." she remarked.  
  
"Don't you mean 'if' we catch whoever did this? There's hardly anything for us to go on, and you know it." he snapped.  
  
"There may be hardly anything for us to go on, but at least there's something."  
  
"And if that 'something' leads us to dead end after dead end? Then what, Olivia?"  
  
"Then we keep trying, Elliot, that's what. Haven't you learned by now that none of us give up that easily? Not you, not me, and certainly not Munch and Fin."  
  
"Have you not seen our victim? She's in a coma, and there's no telling whether or not she'll come out of it. How are we going to go forward if we can't ask her anything?"  
  
"We already have what the doctors relayed to us."  
  
"That doesn't mean that we're not going to hit a brick wall sooner or later. She didn't tell them who did this to her, who brought her in or anything."  
  
"Then whoever did this is going down on more than one charge when we find him."  
  
He said nothing and the area between the two of them fell completely silent...save for the noises down on the sidewalks.  
  
"You can't even be sure we're going to find the guy." he remarked finally.  
  
"And you can't be sure that we won't." she countered.  
  
"What makes you think we will? We don't have any evidence that will help us, other than what we were told."  
  
"Because it's our job to find him."  
  
"Just because it's our job doesn't mean it's going to happen."  
  
"I still don't get why you're being so damn cynical. This isn't the first time we've had next to nothing to go on, Elliot."  
  
"I know that. It's just that..."  
  
"You keep thinking that it could be one of your kids one day."  
  
"How did you know?"  
  
"There's a reason I was made your partner, and you know it. I highly doubt we'd have gotten stuck with each other if we weren't compatible."  
  
"It's not that I don't want to find the guy...you know I do...it's just that when I see cases like these, it just bothers me to think that a child can be so easily betrayed by someone she loves."  
  
"It bothers me too. But we didn't join this unit for no reason, even if we have different reasons."  
  
"I want whoever did this to go through the same hell that little girl went through."  
  
"Can't say I blame you. I feel the exact same way...and it amazes me sometimes the things people think they can get away with."  
  
He fell silent as he looked at her. She was right about one thing...they hadn't joined up with the Special Victims' Unit for no reason. Both of them had their reasons, even if they were different. For that matter, so did Munch and Fin, though those reasons were yet to be seen. All of them did, however, have some common ground that they could work on. It was probably why they worked together so well.  
  
"I don't get what drives a person to do this sort of thing to a child." "Now we're getting somewhere. I came up here to see if you were feeling all right."  
  
"I'm fine. I just...every time I see one of these cases it makes me feel like I'm waiting even longer for the day when I wake up and everything is the way I always thought it would be."  
  
"I think the rest of us feel the same way...if not Munch and Fin, then at least myself."  
  
"We'll probably be waiting for the rest of eternity."  
  
"One could say that it's our fault for getting ourselves into this in the first place."  
  
"It's probably why no one ever wants to go where we do. Look at what we investigate for a living...we've watched families be torn apart, we've seen bodies lying there on the streets...no wonder hardly anyone ever volunteers to come into this unit."  
  
"You did, and so did I."  
  
"And what does that make us?"  
  
"People who are willing to do something to cure society of its' many ills, even if something new does come up as soon as we get off one case."  
  
Both of them fell silent once more as they gazed at each other. She had a point, and he knew it. They were willing to do something, if not everything, to cure society of its' ills...no matter what the cost on their side. They both knew that they would be waiting for eternity for they day that they woke up and found everything was the way they always thought it would be. This job was endless...every time a case was closed, a new one opened...some times found them working on more than one at a time, all in order to help someone that had been hurt, someone that was in need of them. They were twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week on call...their cell phones rang, and they were off, to save a world that they had lived in since before they could remember. It was endless, yes...but at least they had each other.  
  
Author's notes: All right, peoples. This is a rewrite of a story that I posted and then deleted...hopefully this meets with everyone's liking (and if it doesn't well....this story came out of nowhere, so....). As for owning the characters, I don't (but if I did...). The only things I have worth owning right now are my life, my notebooks, my pens and a computer (which I always find every convenient). 


End file.
